Chapter 83: Am I Being Bankrolled by a Rich Girl?
Wherever Makoto moved the Gekota, Mikoto's eyes followed.
Even after he carried it out of the arcade, she kept trailing behind him in a daze. It wasn't until they entered a dim alley that she finally snapped back to reality.
"W-Why did you bring me somewhere like this?"
Makoto's smile looked rather sinister in the darkness.
"What else would someone bring you here for?"
Mikoto immediately clutched her hands to her chest, disbelief flashing in her eyes. She was just about to spark electricity when Makoto continued.
"Obviously, I'm taking a shortcut home. And this is for you."
He tossed the Gekota toward her.
The vigilance vanished from Mikoto's face in an instant. She caught the plush, hugged it tightly, and rubbed her small cheek against it with pure happiness in her eyes.
Seeing her reaction, Makoto felt his earlier effort had been worthwhile.
He didn't understand her obsession with the mascot, but seeing the girl's cute, happy smile was enough to improve his mood.
Makoto waved and turned to leave.
Mikoto hurried forward and caught his wrist.
He looked back curiously.
Still holding the Gekota in one arm, she gave him an apologetic smile.
"Sorry. I thought for a second that you'd brought me here because you had bad intentions."
"You're really overthinking it. Even if I had bad intentions, I'd be having them toward Shokuhou Misaki. After all, her figure..."
Makoto hurriedly pulled his hand back, because electricity was already crackling around Mikoto.
She was very sensitive about her body development. Her peer Shokuhou Misaki and her mother both had huge breasts, so how did she end up flat as a washboard?
Most critically, Makoto had compared her to Shokuhou Misaki. That practically touched her reverse scale!
Makoto quietly gathered chakra, assuming another chase was about to begin.
Instead, Mikoto eventually snorted and withdrew the electricity.
"Anyway, I'm not taking something this expensive from you for free."
She pointed at him.
"Now I owe you another favor. I'll repay you later!"
With that, Mikoto hugged the Gekota, stepped onto the wall, and with electricity emanating from her body, raced through Academy City's steel jungle almost like Spider-Man.
Makoto walked on, rubbing his chin as he watched her disappear.
'That's two favors now.'
No matter what he eventually asked Mikoto to help with, she probably wouldn't refuse.
Over the next two days, Makoto's life returned to a steady rhythm.
At night, he returned to the Main God Space and trained with Yukino. Once he became tired, his Shadow Clones continued practicing while the two of them rested on the sofa and read together.
During the day, Makoto occasionally went out to eat with Touma.
The only real change was that Mikoto sent him a message every day asking whether he wanted to go out and play.
Makoto declined every time.
Balancing work and rest was important, but compared with spending hours fighting Mikoto through arcade machines, he still preferred using that free time with Yukino.
Yukino's clothing style had also become noticeably bolder over the last two days. For example, today she wore an off-the-shoulder loose T-shirt paired with denim shorts. Her rounded thighs and smooth calves would deliberately appear in Makoto's field of vision, crossing and swaying, and from time to time he could even see her fair, small toes playfully curling.
Although Yukino's figure was still lacking, compared to Mikoto she had far more charm and allure.
Makoto also continued checking his social media messages every day.
Mutsumi still hadn't replied.
He decided that if another two days passed without any response, he would cash in one of Mikoto's favors and ask her to use her hacking skills to find Togawa Sakiko's contact information directly.
Unfortunately, peaceful days never seemed to last long.
That afternoon, Makoto received a call from Kuroko.
"I hear you've been enjoying a rather leisurely life lately."
There was a trace of dissatisfaction in her voice.
Makoto mentally raised a question mark.
"Who made our Judgment officer angry?"
On the other end, Kuroko glanced toward Mikoto, who was rolling around on her bed while hugging the black Gekota, and her expression grew even darker.
Kuroko had originally wondered why Mikoto treasured that particular plush so much.
Then Mikoto accidentally let slip that Makoto had given it to her.
That immediately sent Kuroko's imagination in the worst possible direction.
She'd helped save this man's life before, and now he was trying to steal her beloved Onee-sama?
There were some things Kuroko felt needed to be made very clear.
"If you're really that free, come help us investigate Level Upper."
"Once this matter is over, we'll consider the favor you owe me fully repaid."
Makoto paused.
'So I've been dragged into this incident too.'
The Level Upper case wasn't especially dangerous yet, but it would probably consume some of his limited downtime.
After thinking for a few seconds, Makoto agreed.
For one thing, Kuroko was right. He did owe her a favor, and her teleportation ability was useful enough that cooperating again in the future was entirely possible.
More importantly, Makoto wanted to know whether Level Upper would work on him.
His actual esper level was still Level 0.
He was genuinely curious whether his supposed supernatural ability had even the slightest real effect.
As for the coma that eventually affected Level Upper users, Makoto wasn't particularly worried.
The loss of consciousness happened because the users' brainwaves were gradually synchronized with those of the person behind Level Upper.
Makoto wasn't trying to use it to increase his strength.
He only intended to perform the shallowest possible test.
There wouldn't be any danger.
Makoto left his room and prepared to meet Kuroko.
Then something occurred to him.
He checked the date on his phone.
'Wait. Is today the day of the Graviton bombing at Seventh Mist?'
Makoto immediately called Mikoto.
The phone rang three times before she answered, speaking in an unusually low voice.
"W-Why are you calling me right now?"
"Why do you sound like you're doing something suspicious?"
Mikoto's face reddened.
Sitting right beside her was a girl whose expression practically screamed that she wanted gossip.
It was Saten Ruiko, who had gone shopping with her.
Realizing she couldn't hide the call, Mikoto simply raised her voice.
"I'm out shopping with friends! Unlike someone who doesn't even go to school and stays home every day, even when I invite him out!"
Her voice carried obvious resentment.
She'd finally made her first male friend, only for him to reject practically every invitation she sent.
For a while, Mikoto had even wondered whether Makoto secretly disliked her.
His next words immediately brightened her mood.
"You're right. I should probably buy some everyday necessities anyway. Where are you shopping? I'll come join you."
"We're at Seventh Mist... Wait, you're coming now?!"
Mikoto answered instinctively before realizing the problem.
She was shopping with Kazari and Ruiko.
What exactly was Makoto supposed to be doing joining three girls in the middle of their outing?
Not that Mikoto personally disliked the idea...
She glanced toward Ruiko and was just about to refuse when Ruiko recognized Makoto's voice.
"Is that Kitano-senpai? If Kitano-senpai wants to come, I vote yes with both hands! Uiharu agrees too, right?"
Kazari was far too kind to refuse something like that.
Suddenly, all the pressure fell on Mikoto.
She hemmed and hawed but had no reason to refuse, and could only mutter, "Fine. We'll wait for you at the entrance to Seventh Mist."
After hanging up, Mikoto immediately began complaining.
"I invite him out normally and he always says no, but now he suddenly wants to join us. Seriously, that guy is so unreliable."
Ruiko covered her mouth and laughed.
"But Misaka-senpai looks really happy. You can't even stop smiling."
Mikoto immediately covered her mouth.
Ruiko laughed even harder.
"Senpai, I was teasing you."
Realizing she'd fallen for it, Mikoto reached toward her in irritation.
Ruiko naturally refused to accept her punishment quietly and hid behind Kazari, turning the three girls' argument into a playful game of tag.
Their laughter carried through the area.
It also attracted the attention of a gloomy young man searching for a target nearby.
He wore headphones, with a strange noise recording playing through his music player.
His gaze locked firmly onto the Judgment armband worn by Kazari.
His name was Kaitabi Hatsuya.
His ability was Level 3 Synchrotron.
By using aluminum as a medium, he could accelerate gravitons, compress the material to its limit, then release the stored energy as an explosion.
With Level Upper, however, his destructive output had reached Level 4.
Yet instead of taking revenge on the people who regularly bullied him, Hatsuya had chosen to target Judgment officers responsible for maintaining public order.
That was precisely why Makoto was coming here.
In the original course of events, Mikoto and the others had escaped disaster largely because of Touma's right hand.
But Touma was currently at home recovering from his injuries.
Makoto wasn't about to let Mikoto, who owed him two favors, get hurt simply because history had changed.
Before long, Makoto appeared in front of the three girls.
"Long time no see, Kitano-senpai!"
Ruiko immediately stood on her toes and waved enthusiastically.
Kazari rose as well and bowed politely.
Only Mikoto crossed her arms and acted as though Makoto's arrival barely mattered.
The reason was simple.
Ruiko had already asked her more than ten times what exactly her relationship with Makoto was.
Mikoto had no intention of giving her any more material to misunderstand.
She turned and led the way inside.
"Now that everyone's here, let's go in. We're buying clothes. What do you want?"
"Anything's fine."
Mikoto stopped and planted her hands on her hips.
"What kind of answer is that? If you don't want to buy anything, why did you make us wait for you?"
Makoto shrugged.
"I just arrived in Academy City recently. I actually need almost everything, which is exactly why I don't know where to start."
It was true.
Makoto's dorm life had been extremely bare-bones so far.
He ate nearly every meal outside and had barely paid attention to ordinary household necessities.
Only then did Mikoto realize he probably still hadn't adjusted to living in Academy City.
Her forced irritation immediately disappeared.
"Then the three of us can help you figure out what you need. Why don't we start with clothes?"
"Most Academy City students usually wear uniforms, but you haven't enrolled yet, right? Seventh Mist has men's clothing too."
She led the way, and Makoto followed.
Behind them, Ruiko immediately pulled Kazari closer and began whispering.
"See? I told you Misaka-senpai treats Kitano-senpai differently. There's no way she'd normally help some random boy shop for clothes."
Kazari lowered her voice nervously.
"Ruiko, please stop talking about that. Whatever relationship the two senpai have is their own business."
Ruiko shook her head.
"Uiharu, you really sound like an old man sometimes."
Soon, the group reached the men's section.
The first thing they saw was a large display of flashy clothing clearly aimed at Academy City's delinquents.
That made sense.
Most ordinary students wore uniforms, so the main customers for casual clothes were either wealthy students or delinquents who wanted to stand out on the street.
Mikoto glanced over the oversized hoodies and heavily decorated designs, frowned, and waved them aside.
"Not those. They're way too flashy."
Ruiko's eyes, however, lit up.
She could tell Makoto had a solid build, and with that kind of frame, something like a Hawaiian shirt would probably look great during summer.
Mikoto eventually stopped in front of a plain black long-sleeved crew-neck shirt.
She pulled it from the rack and held it against Makoto's chest.
For some inexplicable reason, seeing Makoto behind the black shirt reminded her of the black Gekota he'd given her.
When everyone looked at her strangely, Mikoto hurriedly explained.
"I think this one's pretty good. It suits you."
Before Makoto could answer, Ruiko immediately complained.
"Misaka-senpai, that doesn't have any style at all. You could find something like that anywhere."
"If you really don't like complicated patterns, that oversized T-shirt with cargo shorts over there would be much better. That style is popular right now."
Mikoto glanced toward the outfit Ruiko indicated and imagined Makoto wearing it.
In her imagination, the next second he put on a cap and started doing yo-yo tricks while rapping.
Several black lines immediately appeared on her forehead.
"No. I still think this one is better. We're choosing this."
Ruiko refused to give up.
"Misaka-senpai, at least ask Kitano-senpai what he thinks!"
Both girls turned toward Makoto.
He wisely chose neither side.
Instead, Makoto pointed toward the price tag on the shirt Mikoto was holding.
"Eighteen thousand yen for one T-shirt. Is that normal?"
Ruiko and Kazari both stared at the tag in shock.
Neither of them had noticed the price.
Mikoto, however, looked almost pleased by the discovery.
"It's only eighteen thousand yen."
A hint of satisfaction entered her eyes.
"I'll pay for it."
…